Does anyone else literally feel physically sick at the public outcry directed towards the two ridiculously Australian radio DJs, Mel Greig and Michael Christian? Not because Greig and Christian actually weren’t hugely moronic in not suspecting some consequence to invading the privacy of the UK’s second-most Googled person of 2012 – they were – but because a large majority of commentators are, well, commentating as if G&C teleported into the nurses’ living quarters at the King Edward VII hospital in London last Friday and forced Jalcintha Saldanha to take her own life, à la Trinity in Season 4 of Dexter.
Allow me, having trawled through countless indignant blogs, news stories and social media posts on the topic (so that you don’t have to, Dear Reader), to recreate the general tone of a few of the most preposterous:
To those Aussie DJs – how dare you indulge in the systematic bullying of a helpless and unsuspecting victim?! You were behaving as we civilised folk wouldn’t, and now you must be held accountable for that. Jacintha’s blood is on your hands – and you’re damn lucky that’s the extent of it given the stress you’ve caused Kate and baby George/Victoria/Hashtag (gotta be worth a punt at 500/1!).
I have two main issues with such opinions.
1) The implication here is that you are personally directly responsible for the actions of an individual you have interacted with – because you’ve interacted with them and never mind any mitigating circumstances. You are responsible for the homicidal reactions of a drunk with anger management issues who flies into a rage when you knock his side mirror off, cycling whilst on your mobile. Of course it’s a ludicrously exaggerated example but we’re dealing with pure lunacy here. G&C didn’t “humiliate”, “terrorise”, “degrade” or “debase” Jacintha – listen to the call! I’m not in a position to speculate as to what mitigating circumstances do actually surround this case, but it’s undeniable they exist.
2) You, moralistic observer, have a very high horse. I wonder how you got up there in the first place, and worry slightly for your health as the only easy way to get down is to jump off. Perhaps that’s why you are still up there.
Never played a prank? Never had a laugh at someone else’s expense? What’s that, you have? Secretly found this particular one quite funny actually, at first, did you, before the tragic news emerged? Oh, just hiding behind the smokescreen of the internet are you, to peddle your didactic pish in the direction of like-minded fellow armchair say-gooders to see who can achieve the most “likes” or “thumbs-up”? Thought so. Still secretly find it a little funny? Me too.
NewsOoze 